Having reread the Holmes mysteries for clues as to successful detectioning, having watched seasons of CSI in video within the space of one month to ascertain personality quirks, having imitated Lt. Columbo in all features save the smelly cigar and single eye (yes, the raincoat is a handsome disguise), I now offer these pieces of detective skull-duggery worthy of the deepest, darkest barrow.
The secret real name of
Feanor of thePeredhil is
Anke Katrin Eismann, the delightful and wonderfully talented young artist who is setting a new standard for Tolkien artwork. This was obvious, as our young
Fea is full of the same spirited high imagination and creative energy as Eismann and fully capable of original interpretations in her own RPGs as Eismann presents us with. You don't believe me? Check out
Anke-Katrin Eismann's galleries .
The secret, real name of
mark12_30 is none other than that of the generous, intelligent, and all-round spiffy daughter of JRR Tolkien,
Priscilla Tolkien herself. With modesty, wit, and constant humility, she perseveres in holding out the hope that we all will understand her father as Our Father of great fantasy. And without farther ado I move on to the next suspect..., er, candidate.
On the other hand,
narffoc is none other than the person who runs the Dominic Monaghan fansite called
domgasm. Only, I say, only someone with the linguistic taste to create that site name could also come up with the Downs nick to represent
an half orc. 'Twas under the influence of that orcish brew I'm sure. Both times.
The Squatter of Amon Rudh just has to be
John Garth, author of the latest Tolkien biography,
Tolkien and the Great War. Who else has the detailed knowledge of World War I social and military history and love both of Tolkien and of created languages? He told me himself, he did, at Gordon's, while looking upon a model WWII airplane, that he misspent his youth satisfying his enthusiasm for military things. I hope this is not perceived as betraying a personal confession, for it was made in full view of the bartender and under the loving touch of a glass of ruby port. I hasten to add this was
not the name we met under, but I should add that
Squatter has given me an academic email addy.
One of our recent recruits to the Canonicity thread,
Formendacil, bears all the likely traits of being none other than
Dominic Monaghan himself! His posts persuade me that he is obviously capable of writing a comedy screenplay such as that Monaghan has written with Billy Boyd. I'm sure he comes here to Barrow Downs to practice his hand at simile and metaphor and learn how to handle the outrageous scorn of Barrow Downers who insist upon the most literal interpretations of his posts.
Now this one is particularly secret. No doubt Tolkien fans know of the legendary love and enthusiasm for Tolkien which the scriptwriter
Philippa Boyens has. She can even answer journalists' questions in elvish! Yet few know that her passion for writing Tolkien fanfiction extends beyond the films. Yes, she loves to guide gently younger writers into the respectful waters of Tolkien-consistent RPGs. She is none other than our illustrious RPG Moderator--drum roll here please--
piosenniel. When I heard of the story of how Boyens invited both Sean Bean and Viggo Mortgensen to her hotel room on the same night to go over script changes, why, I knew at once our no-nonsense
piosenniel would appreciate the irony of that situation.
Last but most assuredly not least I submit my final gumshoe report. I have no compromising photographs to prove this, but without a doubt we must all acknowledge the profound similarity between the great love and respect for Tolkien and the profound depth of scholarly work of our own
Estelyn Telcontar and that of the great Tolkien scholar,
Verlyn Fleiger. Only a scholar of such magnitude could lovingly produce the Entish Bow parodies. And only a scholar of language would be unable to resist the wordplay between the names Estelyn and Verlyn.
*picks up violin with a flourish and plays a mad piece*